1999-04

NOVEMBER 14-17, 1999 * MIAMI, FLORIDA USA

New Program Tracks Highlight ISTSS Meeting '99

Miami'99

The ISTSS 15th Annual Meeting, Research and Practice in Partnership: Bridging Gaps Across Disciplines, Cultures and Theoretical Perspectives, will appeal to all members' interests. Program Chair Heidi Resnick, ISTSS Vice President Rachel Yehuda and President Alexander McFarlane have developed eight tracks to give structure to parallel sessions.

Tracks will feature speakers and discussions that will enlighten participants. Presentations will highlight progress made in the study and treatment of PTSD and other post-trauma adaptations, addressing critical cross-trauma, developmental, multicultural and multidisciplinary perspectives. The tracks are:

Bridges will feature presentations regarding the theme of the conference involving innovative integration of fields within traumatic stress. Sessions include such topics as ethics, education, media, policy and human rights, spirituality, primary care, and cross-cultural research.

Basic Research will feature empirical studies on topics such as biology of PTSD; risk factors and coping; longitudinal course of PTSD; gender, health factors; memory; aging; and special trauma groups, such as female offenders, seriously mentally ill and substance abusers.

Interventions, Research will feature presentation of the ISTSS treatment guidelines. A range of various empirical treatment studies of PTSD will be highlighted.

Clinical Theory will include sessions regarding theoretical models of adaptation to trauma.

Assessment will focus on those presentations describing assessment tools for diagnosis, therapy outcome, and quality of life regarding PTSD.

Clinical Discussion will highlight those presentations that offer the opportunity for comprehensive discussions and debate of particular clinical issues and novel treatment approaches.

Trauma Theory presentations will focus on examining issues related to adequacy of DSM-IV criterion A and other provocative issues that require ongoing attention for our field.

Children & Adolescents will feature clinical, research, education and theoretical presentations on developmental issues in adaptation to trauma. This track is consistent with the society's goal of increasing representation of content related to this area.

1999 ISTSS Election Results

The 1999 ISTSS board of directors election has concluded and the following results announced by Nominating Committee Chair Sandra Bloom, MD.

Bonnie Green, PhD will be the next ISTSS president-elect, taking office at the 1999 ISTSS Annual Business Meeting held during the ISTSS Conference in Miami, Fla. Dr. Green will take office as ISTSS president at the Annual Business Meeting in November, 2000.

With the outstanding slate of 23 candidates, ISTSS members had difficult decisions to make. Nine board members were elected to serve three-year terms, including one to fill Dr. Green's board position when she assumes the president-elect office in November. At that time, current president-elect John Fairbank, PhD will become ISTSS president.

Before the 6th European Conference on Traumatic Stress in Istanbul, the ISTSS board held its midyear meeting. This timeless city, which truly sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, represented an ideal venue for a meeting of ISTSS.

Professor Sahika Yuksel organized the conference, and the attendance expressed a solidarity for colleagues in Turkey who have made important contributions to human rights through their scientific work and investigations on the effects of torture. Although, an official complaint was made against the conference for threatening the unity of Turkey, fortunately, the government dismissed the complaint. But it emphasizes the personal and professional stakes which members of the society, from time to time, have to face.

Professionalism is at the core of the motivation to act and advocate in such circumstances. One of the most important features of a profession is that it acts with a sense of fiduciary, namely, to put the welfare and benefit of the client or patient above and beyond self-interest. This involves an active process of empathy, advocacy and duty. A critical characteristic of a professional is that he or she act out of altruism. Also implicit in the nature of professions is having a specialized knowledge or area of interest that cannot be critically judged or regulated by people outside of that group.

Professions have increasingly been under attack because of the perception, both real and at times manufactured by competing structures that they often act out of paternalism and self-interest rather than the interest of their client. Regulatory bureaucracies often use this argument as a justification for removing self-regulation from professions and handing it to bureaucracies. In part, professions have been undermined by the economic rationalism to pursue profit, rather than altruism. The irony is that the bureaucracies put in place to monitor and regulate the delivery of health care are inherently self-interested and even less motivated by the needs of the patients or clients.

The regulation of managed care organizations provides a good example. Here, bureaucracies actively intervene in the provision of health care, limiting the available procedures and resources to patients based on spurious notions about what are acceptable numbers of consultations for a given disorder, or the appropriate investigations for a given condition. Their driving force is clearly financial with the needs of their shareholders the paramount motivation for their actions and decisions.

It is in this environment that ISTSS emerged as an organization. The society does not represent a particular profession, but rather, ironically, the members have come to act as collective advocates for a range of groups of trauma survivors, and a sense of professionalism is a central element of both the ethos and roles undertaken by ISTSS.

For example, the production of the Childhood Trauma Remembered was motivated by the need for a document expressing a view that could be used by individuals challenged about the voracity of these phenomena. The development of the treatment guidelines also has been an attempt to indicate that the society sees itself as a provider for public direction and information about treatment. Whilst there are many appropriate anxieties and apprehensions about the development of such treatment guidelines, the guidelines play an important function in defining the public role of the society as an organization that wants to define professionals, or professional standards. A similar activity, defined by a spirit of altruism, is the involvement of the ISTSS in the United Nations. The initiative, being headed by Matt Friedman and Terry Keane and assisted by John Fairbank, Ellen Frey-Wouters, Bonnie Green, Joop de Jong, myself and Susan Soloman, is a noteworthy example of the desire to inform the international community about the trauma field and its relevance to refugees, victims of war, the homeless and a number of other disadvantaged groups. It is about the conversion of knowledge into public policy and health care practice. This is clearly not done for the financial gain of individuals, but because of concern about the broader social values and well being of the international community.

These activities are very important for defining the future direction and aspirations of the society. Ultimately the question emerges as to what privileges and acknowledgments the society might be offered for taking on these roles. In a world where there are many competing organizations and professional structures wanting to seek the privileges of professionalism without necessarily contributing to the public good, many uncertainties exist. However, the time given by members and their willingness to take on these roles are critical to the society's claim to have a right to speak on behalf of people who have been traumatized. The collective spirit of generosity and willingness to take on these roles is critical. Thus, whilst individual disquiets may exist about these enterprises, what they say about the public face of this organization must not be underestimated.

When researchers or clinicians use the Internet to search for research-funding opportunities, the following list of Web sites may improve the chances of finding the right grants.

GrantsWeb (http://sra.rams.com/ cws/sra/resource.htm) catalogs government and general resources, and has information about private funding sources as well as policies and regulations. Most links cover funding sources in the U.S., but some Canadian and international resources are listed as well. This large site is a good place to start a search for research funding. The Society of Research Administrators sponsors GrantsWeb.

Another large site is Community of Science (http://www.cos.com) run by a collaborative network to promote science and the funding of scientific research. The site offers free access to those with ".edu" internet domains. A person can search for funding opportunities by keywords; both free and subscription products are available.

The American Psychological Association publishes the APA Research Psychology Funding Bulletin on the web (http://www.apa.org/science/bulletin.htm). The site displays current announcements from federal agencies and private foundations, and APA updates it relatively often.

More funding information can be found at Web sites run by specific federal agencies. For example, the Funding Opportunities site (http:// www.nimh.nih.gov/grants/grants.cfm) describes grant and contract programs at NIMH, and includes NIH Forms and Application Kits that can be downloaded directly from the site.

The National Science Foundation's NSF Grants & Awards site (http://www.nsf.gov/home/grants.htm) focuses on similar information about grants and other cooperative agreements at that agency.

The Violence Against Women Grants Office Web site (http: //www.ojp.usdojgov/vawgo/), located within the Department of Justice's site, covers various grant programs assisting women victimized by violence. A visitor can click on a U.S. map to learn about grant activities state-by-state.

Of course, the Veterans Administration, Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and other agencies also have similar sites focused on grant opportunities.

If people prefer relevant funding announcements sent directly to them, then look up the Federal Information Exchange's FEDIX Opportunity Alert (http://nscp.fie.com/). Their free e-mail service sends "targeted" research and education funding announcements within designated interest areas. Once registered, participants will have access to grant opportunities from 12 different agencies.

Although the sites mentioned above focus mainly on federal sources, The Foundation Center site (http://fdncenter.org/) focuses more on private foundations and resources earmarked for nonprofit organizations. The site features an online library, training and grant-maker information, as well as a schedule of full-day proposal writing seminars offered in cities throughout the U.S.

For those interested in research focused on disasters, the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder (http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/) sponsors unique small grants. Once pre-approved, these "Quick Response" grants can be activated if a natural disaster meets proposal requirements. The grants enable researchers to study responses within a few days or weeks of a natural disaster event.

These and other interesting sites focused on grants, statistical issues and research methodology are collected on the Research Links page at my Trauma Information Pages Web site: http:// www.trauma-pages.com. I welcome feedback and suggestions for future Trauma Online columns. Please email me at dvb@trauma-pages.com.

By the time this newsletter reaches members' hands, the deadline for abstract submissions for the 3rd World Conference on Traumatic Stress March 16-19, 2000, in Melbourne, Australia, will have passed as the preliminary program begins to take shape.

The scientific program planning committee focused on two major areas to address during the world conference. The first is to examine some of the paradigms which have governed and perhaps distorted the thinking in the development of the field of traumatology, to review the past achievements, discuss present preoccupations and look to future explorations.

The second area, which also is the theme of the conference, involves examining and detailing some of the long-term outcomes of trauma in individuals and society. Submissions that addressed these major areas will be given preference in the final programming.

The planning committee provided a stimulating variety of fora where these issues will be discussed and debated. Apart from our keynote speakers, who include Onno van der Hart, Alexander McFarlane, Edna Foa, Ernest Hunter, Bessel van der Kolk and Matt Friedman, there will be several other plenary sessions covering major issues throughout the conference.

A presidential debate will take on the topic, "Traumatologist -- Scientist or Activist?" The world forum, chaired by Matt Friedman, will assemble a group of people who think globally about issues facing traumatized cultures to discuss what works and what doesn't in addressing these issues. A question-and-answer period will follow for audience members to address the panel about the particular problems facing their region or culture.

The body, overlooked in the treatment approaches to post-traumatic syndromes, will be the focus of a plenary panel chaired by Bessel van der Kolk, titled "If the Body Keeps the Score, Who Keeps Score of the Body?" A hypothetical case, based on real situations experienced by clinicians and their patients, and moderated by Norman Swann, will weave through many of the challenges faced in working with traumatized individuals in an often re-traumatizing social system. The final plenary, a keynote speaker panel, will draw together the themes from the conference and look to future directions in the field of traumatic stress.

One of the highlights of the conference will be an interview with Brian Keenan, author of An Evil Cradling, about the long-term effects of his period of captivity as a hostage of Lebanese terrorists. Bessel Van der Kolk will conduct the interview at a theatre outside of the conference venue. In order to fund this project, there will be a separate charge for attendance. Seating also is limited, so interested individuals will need to register. Pre-reading of Keenan's compelling account of his captivity is recommended.

Prior to the official opening of the conference, on March 16, workshops will be held with an emphasis on training or exploration of complex issues. A separate fee will be charged for the full-day or half-day workshops.

Concurrent symposia will be programmed throughout March 17 and 18. Major streams for the symposia include culture and trauma, the developmental impact of trauma, combat-related issues, an overview of the Holocaust studies, therapeutic approaches and processes, creative arts in trauma therapy, biological issues (including interrelationships of trauma and physical illness), phenomenology of post-traumatic responses, and co-morbid conditions and the long-term follow-up of major disasters around the world.

Intra-familial abuse, memory, existential and spiritual dimensions of trauma, survival strategies, madness and society, medicolegal perspectives, vicarious and secondary traumatization, working within an ethically-flawed system and trauma in an emergency medicine setting will also be
featured topics in the program.

The conference will include opportunities for delegates to enjoy themselves as well as learn from and exchange ideas with others working in the field. Erik Jarlnaes will devise a process by which delegates can look after themselves during the experience of being exposed to traumatic material. Music and dance will be offered throughout the conference and a dinner/dance with entertainment will provide a more relaxed atmosphere for making contact with others. An accompanying partner's program will be prepared and a restaurant/theatre guide will be included in the detailed program. For those needing to escape from the conference for a few hours, a list of suggested activities to clear the mind also will be available.

The enthusiastic response for this conference from around the world
has been very gratifying and the planning committee is confident of producing an event that members won't want to miss.

For general enquiries about
the conference, accommodation or
tourist options, contact conorg@ozemail.com.au. To discuss program content, dclifton@silas.cc.monash.edu.au

From Survival to Fulfillment: A Framework for the Life-Trauma Dialectic
by Paul Valent
London: Brunner/Mazel, 1998, 200 pages. $59.95

Paul Valent, co-founder of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, has written two books that examine the variety of adverse effects experienced by victims of trauma and the various treatment methods and techniques to treat these effects.

In Trauma and Fulfillment Therapy: A Wholist Framework, Valent describes his wholistic framework in detail. First, he defines the field of traumatology as the study of serious threats to the survival and fulfillment of life. According to his definition, then, trauma potentially disrupts every aspect of human fulfillment. In his approach to treatment, he relies upon a triaxial framework with axes of process, parameters and depth. The process axis is the process from stressors to trauma to illnesses or adaptations. The parameter axis describes parameters of the situation including the type of trauma, phases of disaster, life cycle phase of victims and social parameters. The depth axis defines the level of human function in all its aspects (moral, value-based, spiritual, physiological and instinctive). The wholist perspective described in this book helps to make sense of and bring meaningful categorization to the trauma that plagues humans.

The book also describes overarching treatment principles (called treatment elements or ingredients) in detail. They include recognition and diagnosis of trauma and its ramifications, non-specific therapy, symptomatic treatment, and specific trauma and fulfillment treatment.

There are many case studies throughout the book. Several of them examine the clinical application of the wholist perspective. A well-made point by Valent is that even the most extreme adaptation to trauma can benefit from therapy. The wholist perspective in therapy places traumatic material in perspective and explores adaptive alternatives and possibilities for future happiness and resolution. Wholist treatment may also be tailored to early treatment situations as it broadens views of symptoms, while still placing those symptoms within sensible diagnostic categories.

In the second book, Valent presents the history of PTSD treatment and then looks at four common principles: (1) recognition of trauma, its effects and amenability to treatment; (2) nonspecific aspects of the therapeutic milieu and a safe and caring environment, (3), treatment of symptoms through drugs, relaxation and anger management; and (4) specifics of trauma treatment.

According to Valent, there is a recognized understanding that individuals experience stress and enter a state of trauma when stressors challenge life-enhancing equilibria. This stress response can have biological, psychological and social ramifications. Individual vulnerabilities and strengths that facilitate the noxious effect of stressors affect these responses. These factors include background and disaster characteristics, vulnerabilities arising from previous traumas, transgenerational (genetic, cultural and trauma-specific) experiences and individual strengths. Collectively these factors create an individual repertoire of defenses that mitigate the potential and actual effects of trauma and serve as survival strategies in each person. Traumatic memories are the reverberations of these events and their defenses.

The book, From Survival to Fulfillment: A Framework for the Life-Trauma Dialectic, provides a means of understanding the wide variety of trauma and fulfillment responses and a framework that can be applied to make sense of the diverse treatments for traumatic stress.

The mission of ISTSS includes the development and dissemination of scientific information about traumatic stress. With this in mind, the society created the Public Education Committee. This committee places its primary focus on getting the word out to the public, rather than to the scientific and professional communities.

That's a big job, and one that can't be done overnight. An enormous amount of information about traumatic stress has been developed over the past decade, and the information needs to reach as many people as possible. The committee can make a very important contribution to the public (and the society) by carefully working to identify effective public education processes and projects.

In November 1997, Sandy Bloom, then ISTSS president, formed the Public Education Committee to meet this mission, with Laurie Pearlman chairing the committee. The first project was to produce and disseminate the memory pamphlet, "Childhood Trauma Remembered." In it, the pamphlet describes the latest scientific knowledge about traumatic memory. The pamphlet, published in May 1998, was the product of intensive effort by many contributors, headed up by Susan Roth and Matt Friedman and with help from ISTSS headquarters.

In addition, committee members also produced a public education brochure based on CTR that is substantially shorter and designed to be distributed in waiting rooms and in mailings.

Three projects keep committee members busy currently. First, they are working to formulate and implement a circulation plan for the CTR pamphlet. This project entails identifying the appropriate parameters such as population, price and quantity to ensure the broadest distribution of the pamphlet. The second project, in conjunction with Rachel Yehuda, involves creating a public service announcement about trauma, designed specifically for a psychiatry radio show. Third, the committee wants to develop a general strategy for spreading trauma-related news.

These three projects reflect the perspective of the committee. It recognizes that a growing amount of information is available about traumatic stress and sees numerous ways to disseminate this information. Rather than attempting to catalog and distribute all information, committee members chose to develop a process by which committees, interest area groups or individual members could disseminate information with the support of ISTSS. The committee used the distribution of the CTR as both a model and pilot case. Proposed future projects include developing a mechanism to allow ISTSS members ,or ISTSS as a whole, to respond to trauma-related events in the media, and developing a speakers' bureau.

In November 1998, Brian Litzenberger, who headed up the memory pamphlet subcommittee, joined Pearlman as co-chair of the committee. Committee members include Lucy Berliner, Ted Bober, Chris Courtois, Berthold Gersons, David Lilly, Elana Newman, Joe Rudolph and Camille Wortman.

The Policy and Prevention Interest Area Group formed to foster discussion about policy issues, policy activism and prevention programming as it relates to trauma and traumatic stress. As the field of trauma develops, the policy and prevention issues become clearer, and researchers and clinicians are uniquely positioned to proactively identify and address growing concerns and issues in the field. But as an international interdisciplinary organization this is not a small task.

Chairperson Joseph Rudolph hopes to accomplish three broad goals through the interest group. First, he wants to encourage the submission of policy and prevention presentation at ISTSS conferences. Secondly, he plans to facilitate on-going policy and prevention dialogue between meetings, and finally, provide a space for multi-disciplinary discussion about effective policy analysis, policy development and prevention programming.

The group will meet in November at the ISTSS 15th Annual Meeting in Miami. If you are interested in participating or have suggestions or comments, please contact Joe Rudolph by e-mail at: jmrudolp@unity.ncsu.edu.

First Class of DART Fellows Joins ISTSS in Miami

Six accomplished journalists received an historic invitation to use the ISTSS 15th Annual Meeting Nov. 14-17 in Miami, to enrich their understanding of trauma science and its implications for newsgathering.

The 1999 Dart Fellows are Chris Bull, a Washington, D.C., author and magazine freelancer; Gabrielle Crist, criminal courts reporter for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram; David Handschuh, New York Daily News photographer; Arlene Levinson, New York-based national writer for The Associated Press; Frank Smyth, a Washington, D.C., freelance journalist who writes mainly about foreign affairs and has reported on wars in many countries; and Deirdre Stoelzle, reporter and assistant city editor of the Casper (WY) Star-Tribune.

The first class of Dart Fellows, chosen in July, will attend a seminar, Nov. 13-14, then have full access to the ISTSS conference. The seminar, the first project of the Interest Group on Journalism and Trauma formed at the 1998 ISTSS Annual Meeting, is funded by a grant from the Dart Foundation, at Michigan State University, with the formal support of ISTSS.

The Fellows were chosen in a national competition based on their commitment to studying emotional trauma and their personal achievements. The selection committee included Frank Ochberg, MD, East Lansing; Elana Newman, PhD, of the University of Tulsa; Bruce Shapiro, contributing writer for The Nation magazine, and Roger Simpson, PhD, director of the Journalism and Trauma Program at the University of Washington. The seminar committee also includes Sandra Bloom, MD, past ISTSS president, and Laurie Anne Pearlman, PhD.

For Interest Group information contact Roger Simpson, University of Washington, 206/543-0405 or newsboy@u.washington.edu.

ISTSS '99 Meeting Registration & Accommodations

The Hotel Inter-Continental Miami will host the meeting. Situated in the heart of downtown Miami, the hotel is adjacent to the shops and restaurants of Bayside Marketplace and overlooks spark-ling Biscayne Bay, the city and the port. The Inter-Continental captures all the city's excitement, energy and cultural diversity.

ISTSS has negotiated with the hotel to offer the discounted rate of $140 single/double occupancy. This rate does not include applicable state and other taxes. The rate is available for reservations made before Oct. 14. To reserve a room, contact the Inter-Continental directly. Mention the ISTSS meeting to receive the discounted rate.

On July 17, 1998, in Rome, 160 nations decided to establish a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) to try individuals for the most serious offenses of global concern: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Rome Statute will enter into force, and the ICC will be formally established, after 60 countries ratify it. As of Aug. 11, 84 countries -- indicating intent to ratify -- signed the statute, and four have already fully ratified it.

The United Nations General Assembly first recognized the need for a permanent mechanism to prosecute mass murders and war criminals in 1948, following the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after World War II. To be headquartered at The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICC will be a permanent institution not constrained by the time and place limitations of the two ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It will be able to act more quickly and, as a permanent entity, its very existence will be a deterrent, sending a strong warning to would-be perpetrators. It will also encourage states to investigate and prosecute egregious crimes committed in their territories or by their nationals, for if they do not, the ICC will be there to exercise its jurisdiction.

Non-Governmental Organizations' (NGO) participation in the process of establishing the ICC has been coordinated by the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court (CICC), with more than 800 organizations around the world. Having been consistently active in developing, adopting and implementing all UN instruments on behalf of victims since the early 1980s, ISTSS joined the CICC at its inception in 1995. ISTSS co-formed its Working Group on Victims' Rights, whose general objective has been to lobby governments and others (e.g., the press, other NGOs and the public) in all relevant material to ensure that the statute and the rules adequately provide for the victims' rights. In addition, the working group also wanted to see that the victims' needs and concerns be taken into account throughout the judicial process of the ICC, trusting that the Court will render not only retributive, but also restitutive justice that will aim, inter alia, to prevent revictimizing, perpetuation and fueling of cycles of violence and war, incurring long-term high health, economic and sociopolitical costs.

Most of the victims' issues and much of the material on victims in the draft statute going into Rome, and later, appeared to be controversial. But an ongoing process throughout the drafting has continued in which governments and NGOs have been intimately involved in developing positions. ISTSS issued numerous position and background papers, participated in all meetings and proposed text for the drafts of the statute and rules, most of which was adopted.

At the conceptual level, efforts to address these questions relied on two very significant existing UN instruments, the 1985 General Assembly Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power ("Victims Declaration" GA/Res/40/34) and the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law ("van Boven Principles" E/CN.4/Sub. 2/1996/17). As the international community has recommended that states include such principles in their domestic legal systems, it should also be prepared to apply them on the international plane. At the practical or operational level, most of the protection and assistance issues faced by victims as witnesses have relied on those addressed in the statutes and rules of the ad hoc Tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Thus, the ICC had a sound theoretical basis as well as a reservior of practical experience on which to build appropriate mechanisms for the protection of witnesses and to provide assistance to them during the sometimes difficult appearances they will make before the ICC.

Thus, to help victims and witnesses face the judicial process -- without being retraumatized by it -- the ICC will have a Victims and Witnesses Unit to provide protective measures and security arrangements, counseling and other assistance for witnesses, while fully respecting the rights of the accused. The court must also take appropriate measures to protect the privacy, dignity, physical and psychological well being, and the security of witnesses, especially when the crimes involve sexual or gender violence.

The court will establish principles for reparations to victims, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. The court is empowered to determine the scope and extent of any damage, loss and injury to victims and to order a convicted person to make specific reparation. A trust fund will be established for the benefit of victims and their families whose sources will include money and other property collected through fines and forfeiture imposed by the court.

During the meetings of the Preparatory Commission, which began work in early 1999 to give concrete content to the provisions of the ICC Statute adopted in Rome, considerable progress has been made, despite some continued controversy, in drafting many of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The rules, which flesh out many of the details that were of necessity left general by the statute, describe the protection, participation of and reparations of to victims.

It is clear that, because of the Victims Declaration, the van Boven Principles and then energetic work of NGOs, the terms of the debate have been changed. The position of victims has moved from the margins to a central part of any discussion of the creation of an international criminal court or tribunal.

Detailed analysis of the development of the provisions related to victims in the Rome Statute can be found in Report of the Victims' Rights Working Group (Danieli, Y. 1999) in the forthcoming publication of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court on the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (Rome, United Nations/FAO, June 15-July 17 1998).

It is a real privilege for me to assume the role as the student representative of ISTSS. I have been interested in the growth and development of the student committee since I became involved with ISTSS about five years ago.

I am currently a second-year doctoral student in the psychology, human resource development program, which focuses on community psychology and social policy, at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. My professional interests are in secondary traumatic stress, ethics and practice, social policy and community development.

I think that both ISTSS and the field of trauma as a whole offer students great opportunities for professional development. The size of ISTSS and the interdisciplinary nature of trauma research and practice lend themselves to remarkable networking and educational opportunities. Trauma work also provides avenues for research and treatment with broad individual, interpersonal and social implications. In addition, the nature of trauma work also presents a unique set of personal and professional challenges to both new and highly experienced professionals. These opportunities and challenges directly shape the training and professional development needs of student members.

With a growing student membership, the society has reached a critical point in the development of the student section. The board of directors and members of ISTSS have done an outstanding job supporting the training and development of its student members and it is incredibly important to continue this support. ISTSS can provide exciting opportunities for students.

Under the leadership of Karestan Koenan the student section worked to establish a Student Poster Award. Rachel Yehuda, PhD, currently is working to secure funding to support the student section, and Danny Kaloupek, PhD, is developing more student research awards. Additionally, we are working with Elana Newman, PhD, to enlist student authors to write article for Traumatic StressPoints, and to develop a session at the ISTSS Annual Meeting Nov. 14-17 in Miami, where students can meet with representatives from training programs, internships, post-docs and professional jobs.

In addition to these ongoing initiatives I would like to propose three goals for the next year. First, I want to formalize the role and selection procedures for the student section representative. This would clearly define the responsibilities of the position and develop procedures for selecting the student representative. Second, I would like to continue identifying and developing opportunities for students to be involved with ISTSS. With so many talented, motivated students in the field, it is important to create a welcoming process for students who join the organization. In formalizing this process, the society will help the students feel more connected to the other members and provide them an additional avenue of professional support. The third goal would be enhancing the capacity for the student members to communicate between conferences. These communication channels will broaden the students' ability to forge new relationships according to their needs.

Again, I appreciate the opportunity to serve as the student section representative and welcome comments and suggestions. If you are interested in any of the opportunities mentioned or have additional ideas please contact me by e-mail at:
jmrudolp@unity.ncsu.edu.

Cratis Hippocrates, former Director of the Queensland University of Technology School of Journalism, and a driving force behind Australian initiatives to enhance the media's appreciation of traumatic stress, takes the reins for the fall Media-
watch. Hippocrates has presented his programs and research at ISTSS, with his colleague, psychologist Gary Embelton, PhD.

Frank Ochberg, MD
Contributing Editor, Media

* * *

Many scholars have regarded victims of the media as those people whose lives are touched in a significant way by an event or episode that attracts the media's attention. To date research has focused on how victims of crime, especially victims of sex crimes and murders, have been affected by the re-traumatization of media exposure. But researchers neglected to realize that in covering these stories journalists themselves often become trauma victims.

Professor Roger Simpson and James Boggs showed that journalists are "strikingly similar to public-safety workers in both their experiences and their emotional responses" (Journalism & Communication Monographs, Spring 1999). Simpson and Boggs concluded that news organizations will need to "find ways for journalists, like front-line workers in emergency and public-safety work, to recover from the wounds of their work" (Spring 1999).

An Australian investigation project aims to replicate the American study, and examine the impact of these traumatic episodes on the lives of the storytellers, the journalists and other media persons, who supply news from the battle front, the accident site, the flood or fire. This research is part of the Victims of the Media program based at Queensland University of Technology's School of Media & Journalism and is co-directed by journalism professor Cratis Hippocrates and psychology professor Gary Embelton. The program has developed partnerships in Sydney, with Professor Clem Lloyd (University of Wollongong) and in Adelaide, with Ian Richards, head of journalism at the University of South Australia.

The Australian program is part of an innovative international collaboration with three American universities: Michigan State University, the University of Washington (Seattle) and the University of Central Oklahoma. The Dart Foundation, based at Michigan State, brought together the four universities to support victims and media issues. University of Washington Professor Roger Simpson oversees this effort.

Since the March 1998 launch of the Victims of Trauma and the Media program at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, trauma issues in the newsroom have received widespread media coverage in Australia. The coverage is enhanced by training for journalists in universities and the workplace, systematic scientific research and the development of victims and media response teams.

Embelton and Hippocrates also recently developed a series of workshops titled "Managing Trauma in the Newsroom," aimed at editors, section editors, news editors, chiefs of staff and managing editors. Topics include peer supervision and post-trauma debriefing.

After a year's experience in Australia, similar workshops will be offered in the United States with the help of colleagues in partner institutions.

* * *

Our ISTSS colleague, Cratis Hippocrates, is the former chair of Queensland University, Technology School of Journalism and remains as adjunct professor. He's on the Internet at http://www.maj.arts.qut.edu.au/PJ/links/links.html; and his e-mail address is chippocrates@fairfax.com.au.

Meet him next March in Melbourne, when the Third World Conference for the ISTSS will host the first Australian Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence.

University of Louisville
Announces First Annual $200,000 Grawemeyer
Award in Psychology

This year, the University of Louisville will award the first annual Grawemeyer Award in Psychology for scientific excellence. Nominations are sought for individuals or groups who have made a specific scientific achievement within the field of pschoogy.

The nomination letter must detail the reasons why the entry merits the award. Published works, conference presentations, technological advances, software, or other publicly disseminated scholarship will be considered. Nominations will be judged based on creativity, originality, scientific merit and scope of potential applicability in the field. Upon nomination by another, nominees will be notified and asked to submit more materials. Awards are $200,000; acceptance of the award requires personal delivery of a public address and participation in university and community activities associated with the award ceremonies.

In the last few years, research methodologists witnessed enormous advances in the analysis of change.

At the upcoming ISTSS Miami Meeting, Nov. 14-17, members will have the opportunity to gain insight into the latest thinking about longitudinal research strategies at a Specialty Training Course on Saturday, prior to the meeting, titled "Introduction to Longitudinal Data Analysis: Growth Modeling and Incomplete Data." ISTSS' Research Methodology Interest Group sponsors the half-day session and Darin Erickson and Daniel King will conduct the course.

The course will be presented at an introductory level, and should be most beneficial to those with graduate level statistics coursework and familiarity with regression analysis. First, Erickson and King will introduce the notion of a growth curve or growth trajectory that describes a single individual's progression on a variable over time and the application of structural equation models to the analysis of such prospective longitudinal data. Next, the basic longitudinal growth curve model will be presented, followed by variations that address more complicated questions such as those arising in treatment outcome studies. The course also will demonstrate new techniques that enable the researcher to retain study participants even in the absence of large portions of data. It will conclude with a segment devoted to the handling of incomplete or missing data, a frequent concern in prospective longitudinal research.

Darin Erickson has doctoral training in social psychology, with special emphasis in psychological statistics and methods. From 1997-1999, he worked as a research associate and Gulf War Studies project coordinator at the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD in Boston. He is currently a research fellow in the division of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. Dan King is a quantitative psychologist who holds the positions of Research Psychologist at the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD in Boston and Research Professor at Boston University School of Medicine.

The Research Methodology Interest Group will sponsor other symposia and workshops at the annual meeting such as sessions on strategies for establishing cross-cultural validity, data mining and data warehousing, and the clinician-to-researcher transition process.

The interest group seeks to foster communication between investigators and practitioners and to provide educational opportunities on the most current, state-of-the-art methodological approaches for trauma research. The group will meet at the conference in Miami. All interested individuals are invited to attend. The co-chairs are Daniel and Lynda King, and can be contacted at National Center for PTSD (116B-2), VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130; tel, 617/566-8617; king.daniel@boston.va.gov or lking@world.std.com.

ISTSS '99 Program and Session Highlights

Premeeting Training Courses
Sherri Falsetti has organized an exciting series of Saturday Specialty Training Courses that will provide a diverse selection of intensive learning experiences.

The full day sessions will include Resick's training in cognitive processing therapy, Yael Danieli's workshop on countertransference, Anne Pratt and colleagues' workshop on forensic work and Stamm and colleages' course regarding Caring for the caregiver.

The half-day sessions include courses on group psychotherapy for women, group psychotherapy for chronic PTSD, multi-cultural issues, assessment and treatment of adult abuse survivors, screening for trauma experiences and response in mental health settings, interdisciplinary trauma studies, intervention with trauma-exposed children, research ethics, assessment and treatment of Complex PTSD, forensic evaluation of DID, longitudinal analyses, and a basic primer in treatment research. Faculty for the half day courses include but are not limited to Bessel van der Kolk, John Briere, Lucy Berliner, David Read Johnson, Jonathan Shay, Lucy Berliner, Paula Schnurr, David Foy, Sherri Falsetti, Rachel Yehuda, Elana Newman, Eve Carlson, Thomas Mellman, Stephen Frankel, and Michael De Arellano.

Keynote & Plenary Sessions
The Sunday night opening session, chaired by Terence Keane, is titled "Toward a Cross-Cultural Understanding of Trauma: Implications for Research Practice and Social Policy." It will feature presentations by Glorisa Cannino, Julia Perilla, Maria Livanou, and Metin Basoglu. The Monday morning plenary session will chaired by Edna Foa, called "Advances in the Treatment of PTSD," which will feature information about the latest empirically based treatments in PTSD with addresses by Barbara Rothbaum, Jonathan Davidson, and Janice Krupnick.

Laurie Pearlman will serve as chair and discussant on a plenary session addressing exposure to multiple traumatic events and the outcomes associated with complex histories. Featured speakers include John Briere, Dean Kilpatrick and Victoria Follette. Roger Pitman, will chair a closing plenary session on prospective longitudinal studies of acute trauma responses that may predict subsequent PTSD. Presentations by Alexander McFarlane, Arieh Shalev, and Richard Bryant will describe research related to biological, psychophysiological, and acute stress symptoms that may predict later PTSD.

The Presidential Keynote, chaired by Alexander McFarlane, will host Steven Hayes, who will discuss how language complicates the human response to trauma.

Bessel van der Kolk will chair a keynote featuring Rachel Yehuda and titled "What Clinicians Need to Know About the Biology of PTSD: Theoretical and Practical Applications of Biology Knowledge."

The meeting will also include special sessions on treatment guidelines and the forthcoming publication of ISTSS' Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Critical Reviews and Guidelines.

Invited Symposia include an Anxiety Disorders Association of America-sponsored symposium on the interface between PTSD and other anxiety disorders as well as presentations related to community violence, and effects of traumatic events on quality of life. Frank Ochberg, will chair a session called, "The Journalist Who Covers Catastrophe and the Clinician Who Treats the Casualty: Building Bridges Based on Research." It will discuss how reporters cover trauma, how trauma affects reporters and how the two fields can develop a research agenda together.

Making Time for Discussions
We are adding a variety of networking lunches and other opportunities for formal and informal discussions. Planned sessions will allow small groups to meet with leaders in the trauma field to receive supervision, guidance, career advice, or just chat about trauma theory and topics of interest. Luncheons will bring together students, new members, and other groups. This year we wish to encourage participation at the ISTSS Awards Banquet by reducing the ticket cost.

Continental breakfasts and refreshments will be provided during poster sessions and breaks to encourage professional interaction.

In order to make room for all the other exciting submissions in previous issues, I condensed this column in the last three issues. Without realizing it, I had fallen quite behind in sharing citations of recently published work in the field. Therefore, in this issue, I compiled those articles published this year that I had not previously shared in my column. It should be noted that these articles either came to my attention through my own experience and literature searches or from articles that ISTSS Society members sent to me.

Given the size of this list, I tried to categorize the articles under general topic headings (although many could be placed in multiple categories). Despite the fact this list is not comprehensive, some trends are visibly apparent. For example, it is clear that there has been a proliferation of research regarding biological and neurophysiological correlates of PTSD this year. Treatment of PTSD in adults continues to be an area of great focus, and there continues to be a growing amount of literature on motor vehicle accidents, human rights, children and adolescents and health. It is exciting to see so many articles on traumatic stress studies in the field.